SEA OF HEARTBREAK

Rosanne Cash's album version

Info

SEA OF HEARTBREAK is a 1961 song by Don Gibson. See the original Don Gibson version for more details. Rosanne Cash recorded the song and released it on her 2009 album The List. Her recording features Bruce Springsteen backing her on the verses and singing lead at the short bridge. The above lyrics are for Rosanne Cash's album version of SEA OF HEARTBREAK as released in 2009.

Rosanne Cash -- The List

LP - Manhattan Records (509996 96576 1 0) - USA, 2009
CD - Manhattan Records (509996 96576 2 7) - USA, 2009

The List was officially released on 06 Oct 2009 (U.S. release date), but SEA OF HEARTBREAK was first released as a download-only digital single on 25 Aug 2009.

Rosanne Cash -- Sea Of Heartbreak

The Album

In 2009, Rosanne Cash told Terry Gross: "When I was 18 years old, I went on the road with my dad after I graduated from high school. And we were riding on the tour bus one day, kind of rolling through the South, and he mentioned a song. We started talking about songs, and he mentioned one, and I said I don't know that one. And he mentioned another. I said, 'I don't know that one either, Dad,' and he became very alarmed that I didn't know what he considered my own musical genealogy. So he spent the rest of the afternoon making a list for me, and at the end of the day, he said, 'This is your education.' And across the top of the page, he wrote '100 Essential Country Songs.'"

On another occasion Cash also said: "If my father had been a martial arts master, he might have passed a martial arts 'secret' on to me, his oldest child. If he had been a surgeon, he might have taken me into his operating room and pointed out the arteries and organs. If he were a robber baron, he might have surveyed his empire and said, 'Honey, some day this will all be yours!' But he was a musician and a songwriter, and he gave me 'The List'."

The List became Rosanne Cash's first-ever covers record. It contains her contemporary interpretations of 12 songs she picked from the list her father gave her in 1973. The album features vocal duets with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy, and Rufus Wainwright. An iTunes Store-only 13th song features a duet with Neko Case.

When WHYY's Terry Gross asked Rosanne Cash why she wanted Springsteen to sing on SEA OF HEARTBREAK, she replied, "Because he's just a dream date... the embodiment of the perfect male voice."

Charts

The Sea Of Heartbreak single did not chart, but The List album peaked at #5 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, Cash's first top ten album on the chart in 22 years, and hit #22 on the general Billboard 200, topping her previously most successful album on that chart, 1981's Seven Year Ache which peaked at #26. It is also her first entry on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart, where it debuted and peaked at #8.

Grammy Nomination

SEA OF HEARTBREAK was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award for "Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals". It lost for the Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat sing LUCKY. Bruce Springsteen did not attend the award ceremonies which took place on 31 Jan 2010 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Live History

SEA OF HEARTBREAK was performed off-tour on 15 Apr 2010 at Duke University in Durham, NC, during a guest appearance at a Rosanne Cash concert.

Credits

Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.

Available Versions

List of available versions of SEA OF HEARTBREAK on this website:

Page last updated: 09 Apr 2017